I repeatedly get this message when LM7.2 boots up from CD prior to install.

Partition Check
hda:hda: timeout waiting for DMA
ide_dmaprocs : chipset supported ide_dma_timeout func only:14
hda:irq timeout : status 0x58 { Drive Ready send Complete Data request.

then it freezes up. BTW : PNP OS option = no

Can anyone analyse this message for me?

not knowing your hardware config i don;t know how old the drive is.

as far as i know it looks like Mandrake is attempting to set a DMA channel for you hard drive. this increases performance and can make it whiz along fast. however not all drives support it (namely some older drives and some of the newer ones possibly).

you'll need to pass an option to the kernel at the very begining of the install process. there should be details in the install book or on their website about how to disable the DMA thingy.

Alex

webtoe, thx for replying. yours is the first out of all the places I posted.

here's my hardware config : Harddrive : 6.2gb seagate medallist 6531 ultraATA ST36531A

(1) VXpro m537 logicboard, AMD2.2v cpu @300mhz, Rendtion verite Display, Creative vibra sound Card Maxell 48*CD. One 16mb dimm and 4*16mb 72pin simms

PNP OS = disabled.

(2) IBM Aptiva 2161-N74 200mhz pentium cpu (circa 1998) onboard 2mb ATI display, 2*32mb sdram dimms.


We were able to install LM7.2 on the IBM aptiva with some work on the display settings. it runs fine; much better than Win95 on the same machine. The trouble I had was trying to install on the VXpro config. OK i know it is a heap of junk mashed together, eg the lowest voltage the board can go is 2.5, according to the manual, but Win95 installs & works fine on it. If Mandrake doesn't work on it I'd like to understand why and find out from whatever clues it might give, rather than simply say "it doesn't work".

Besides, I'd rather get Mandrake to work on config (1) rather than (2) since the Aptiva belongs to my friend and the AMD setup has a better CPU and can recognise more ram. (The Aptiva is limited to exactly 2*32mb dimms)

I've tried the fixes on this page http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/72last.php3 including the suggested fixes for "Partition table destroyed, or freeze after hard disk detect." & "Freeze-up after IDE detection " neither work .

to be specific: Mandrake 7.2 installed on the IBM Aptiva using the 6.2GB seagate and not on the AMD/vxpro with the same harddrive. Thx

well im confused now. unfortunatly im not muc of a hardware boy (just enough to perform) so im just taking a stab in the dark here.

i looked at the linux hardware how-to at http://www.linuxdoc.org to see if your board was known to have3 bugs or not and it wasnt named specifically although it did say something about
certain integrated controllers may or may not work well (or at all).

don;t know if this applies to you or not.

have you looked in the bios for some dodgy setting which is horrifically different from your aptiva which might be screwing the hard drive around?

could you install it on the aptiva machine then just swap the hard drives around? then just config that machine to work with the new installed hard drive. i suggest getting it to go to console mode on start up to do this. and get it to use standard vga as graphics. as another precaution i suggest swapping the monitors (unless you know or not whether the sync rates are the same). everything should be auto detected pretty much at start up and if it doesn;t then it should just be a little tweak away from a fix. if it diesn;t work then you know that it won;t work on your motherboard (so get in touch with the bloke who wrote the aforementioned how-to).

sorry if that is no help at all

Alex

P.S. can you really mix dimms and simms like that?

maybe that's your problem..........?

well, the VXpro's support this "free table configuration" thing, according to the manual, which allow a mix of simms and dimms. Over at Arstechnica where I also posted, someone called this board a "montrosity" heh heh

I also get the same error messages when the partition check is performed at boot on 1 of the 2 drives
.
After it eventaully boots the hdparm shows dma for that drive is turned off
This only started after upgrading to RH7.1 from RH6.2 so may be a feature of the newer kernel.
I also get intermittent Kernel panics with a lost interupt to the same drive.

Peter...